THE GIN PASSPORT ATLAS - DISTILLERY STORY- PINNED ON THE MAP - UK/ EUROPE
BLACKEYE GIN, England, UK
Blackeye is a gin born out of rugby, friendship and a podcast that apparently gave three men rather more ideas than was strictly necessary.
Former England rugby internationals Mike Tindall and James Haskell, together with broadcaster Alex Payne, were behind The Good, the Bad & the Rugby podcast when listeners started suggesting they should make their own gin. Rather than dismissing the idea as the sort of thing people say after a few drinks, they actually did it.
The name Blackeye is a nod to the physical nature of rugby and, according to the founders, the resilience and camaraderie that comes with it. The bottle doesn't exactly hide its sporting roots either, with the three founders very much part of the story.
Yet the gin itself isn't designed as some kind of novelty rugby drink. It is a contemporary London Dry, made with a mixture of botanicals connected to rugby-playing nations around the world, including citrus, juniper, pine, floral notes and spices.
There is also a rather more serious reason behind the brand. Blackeye was created as a purpose-led business with the intention of giving something back to the sport that made all three men their names.
Every bottle supports the Blackeye Rugby Fund, which aims to fund research, player safety and recovery, with the long-term ambition of investing £1 million a year in the rugby community. The fund has already supported injured players including Lewis Moody, Ed Slater and Matt Hampson.
The gin is made in partnership with Hawkridge Distillers, who also contract distill several other brands including Richard Hammond's Ratio gin. Blackeye has earned plenty of recognition in its own right. Less than a year after launching, it won Double Gold and scored 95 points at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, giving the gin some serious competition credentials beyond the celebrity names attached to it.
Blackeye has since expanded beyond gin into English single malt whisky and tequila, turning what started as three rugby men responding to suggestions from podcast listeners into a wider spirits brand. The rugby connection remains at its heart, but the idea was never simply to put three famous faces on a bottle. There is a business, a fund and a fairly ambitious attempt to use spirits to put something back into the sport that brought them together in the first place.
"Three rugby legends.
One serious gin."
Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story.
